The disclosure of the above-mentioned PCT application is essentially concerned with the fabrication of structurally strong articles from an inherently weak material such as expanded polystyrene (EPS) which is coated with one or more layers of a thermoplastic sheet material such as APET (amorphous polyethylene terphalate). By themselves such materials have a negligible strength, however, by carrying out the processes described in the above-mentioned PCT specification, a structural article of very substantial strength can be fabricated. Some examples of various structural articles are disclosed in that PCT specification.
The object of the present invention is to further improve upon the above-mentioned disclosures, in particular by the provision of a number of interior members each of either inherently fluid permeable or perforated to become fluid permeable. The interior members are provided, for example for the purposes of decoration and/or additional strength and/or their individual properties, and are sandwiched or encapsulated by the heat deformable outer layer(s).